Well, in the Mormon realm of the world.
and by famous, I don't really mean famous.
Elaine S. Dalton
General President of Young Women
She's pretty spectacular.
Some people know, some people don't, but I was recently called to serve as the 1st counselor in our Young Women's presidency in our ward. That's a huge calling!
So I had an amazing opportunity to attend a training meeting for all the Young Women leaders in the area on Saturday. Sister Dalton was there directing the training. During the meeting she did an object lesson of sorts, using people as visual aids. She made a comment about how many of the YW leaders these days look young enough to be the girls, and then how she needed someone who looked young to come up and act as a young women.
We had happened to get there early so we were in the 2nd row.
And I'm young. Really young.
And I look young.
She looked straight at me and had me come up.
She put her arm around me and talked about how I was the young women and how I needed a strong support group. So she had other audience members call out people who could be a support: mom/dad, yw leaders, young men leaders, home teachers, bishop, sunday school teachers, seminary teachers, grandma/grandpa, etc. They all came up and formed a circle around me. Then Sister Dalton came into the circle, took me by the arm and led me out. She commented on how easy it was to pull me away from that group, and how even though a young woman can be surrounded by all these people, one big temptation can come in and take her away.
So she had the people link arms around me and then she tried to get in. She said when they were all working together and trying hard to help support and protect this young women, it was much harder for temptation to get in. Then she had everyone go down and she put her arm around me again and talked and I have no idea what she said. Until she asked me how I felt in the circle. Then she said "and I know you're one of the strong one's because you have that sparkle in your eye." And she side hugged me and said thank you.
Uh, pretty dang cool!
I've never met a General Authority of our church before, not too mention have ever been that close in proximity to one. It was a pretty neat experience! Something I will definitely never forget.
It was a really spectacular meeting and I learned alot about myself, about the Young Women organization, and about my responsibilities as a leader. I am so grateful I was able to attend!
